Month: December 2011

Dude, okay, so these guys buy a ghost on an online auction. It comes in a box. You open the box, and you get whatever you desire. But then you have to pay for your desires! It’s so totally original!

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Honestly, this movie reminds me of what would happen if you were to roll all of the gifs and tropes that get brought up on a livejournal horror comm into one script and cast it with stereotypical frat brothers.

I’m going to break a cardinal rule of reviewing anything and tell you that I would like the movie, if someone else wrote it and it was a completely different script. As in, there’s a lot of potential. The premise is the stuff of internet legend, and the ghost itself is pretty solid. Even the stupidity of the male characters (one of them jokes that the main characters bought the box to store condoms and spare change…another doesn’t want to go on a date because he might have to eat carbs…) would be enjoyably ironic if the movie didn’t take itself so seriously.

A different handling would actually make this watchable. As it is, it may actually not be that bad as a party movie because not hearing it would probably improve the watchability greatly.

I look for movies that are rated 3 stars or lower on Netflix. I’ve found that these are movies that are often underrated, and underviewed. On the other hand, there’s also reason why a lot of these films are rated so low.

Right off the bat, YellowBrickRoad is a little forced. The opening audio doesn’t even attempt to sound authentic-unless all radio transmissions in the 1940s sounded like air traffic controllers. Maybe they did. Maybe I’m not giving the film enough credit.

And there’s the classic horror trope montauge to open. But the storyline intrigued me, and I do love me my tropes.

I like the general basis for the storylne (but then, everything old is new again). It’s slightly less overdone than some of the other tropes. The movie starts with a description of how a New Hampshire town walks into the woods one morning in 1940 and disappears, never to be heard from again. The one lone survivor is found under great distress. In 2008, the first expedition to go looking for them is mounted.

…Which is my first major issue with this film. It took…68 years…for anyone to bother going and looking at what happened? And it’s sort of left hanging. There’s no real logic behind that decision-notice I said ‘real’ logic. The explanation for it is a little weak. Remind me to never move to New Hampshire. It may take them 80 years before they notice I didn’t come home with the groceries.

I think that the issue with the film is the casting. The characterization is horrible (“What scent reminds you of the color red?!”…um, BPAL’s Suck It from Halloweenie 2008 and Dark Chocolate and Cherries. Though for the sake of theme, I’m going to go with Gore-Shock). I can handle stilted characters though. But the cast just looks…bored. There’s a scene where they take photos of each other, and you would think they’re at a funeral not the start of a major project.

I’ve started 3 of my knitting goals, and one of my spinning/dyeing goals.

-I’ve got about half of my charity scarf goal done, so after the 1st I’m going to stop pushing it so hard. The drive I’ve been knitting for will be done by then anyway.

-I’ve got a project for myself on the needles, plus a few that I started before this year’s goals started.

-I’m about a third of the way through my queue goals.

what came up when I googled yarn + horror

Fiber Diet

I have mixed feelings about how my yarn diet has worked out. I still have a few days, I said it would run until the 1st.

I did well with not buying new fiber. I bought a few skeins for commissions and presents, but it’s all been used and the projects delievered. I was gifted a skein of sock yarn. That’s the only fiber I’ve gotten.

On the other hand I’ve only used 27 skeins. That’s including the stuff I got for commissions, and the skeins I’ve dyed and gifted. I was hoping to use a lot more than that. I had intended on sending more yarn out for holiday wishes but posttage is expensive.

27 skeins is still decent, and I’m fairly certain that’s the size of my entire stash this time last year.

It carries tones of The Village (seriously, this town has connections to the outside world, so why are people dressed like a Polish living history museum?), The Wicker Man (but more that horrible, horrible, painful, almost intolerant mess that Cage put his name on), and even Black Death to a point.

It’s a mess. Even the town name is a mess- when I googled this film (I have a bad habit of googling movies as I watch them), it was pointed out that the name can’t exist in modern Polish because the language doesn’t use Vs. Maybe they’re trying to make it seem like a town out of time? Who knows.

However, thematically I like this type of horror. And it’s not a totally ineffective delievery, but I have to agree with Bloody Disgusting’s review– it looks digital. I get that a lot of films are shot that way, but a film filter would have helped significantly.

I guess my one major fault with it, which is a total review no no because it’s reviewing the movie as I would have written it and not as it was made, is that it’s not like Polish folkore and mythology isn’t strange enough on its own.

I’m lucky in that while I have a couple of asthma related issues, I don’t get sick that often during the winter.

Unfortunately, when I do, there’s very little over the counter that I can take for it. I’ve been drinking this for years when I have a cold. I love it so much that I probably told you about it last winter and just forgot.

hot water

lemon

cayenne pepper

cinnamon

honey

Mix as much lemon, honey, cinnamon, and pepper as you can handle with the hot water and drink often.

This month has been busy, busy, busy. I was hoping to do one last seasonal folklore post today but that requires research, and the last thing that I want to do today is research.

I want to be lazy and lay around…except apparently I don’t and I’ve been tackling small odds and ends type projects around the apartment. My living space looks like it’s been ransacked and there’s lots of small stuff to get done.

And new recipes to try. The Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook comes highly recommended from the Frugal Girl and it was high up my wish list for Yule this year. I made french toast this morning- the recipe was good but my bread wasn’t sturdy enough, and honestly I just don’t like french toast that much.

I’m still working on Mid’s Christmas present and I can’t even give you a status photo because I put my camera down somewhere and can’t find it now. Like I said…lots of small projects to be accomplished.